Legal & General believes that Corporate Social Responsibility is a differentiating factor for its organisation in a highly competitive financial market. All our stakeholders, including employees, policyholders and shareholders, have expectations of ‘good governance’, which includes managing and initiating opportunities in all areas of our operations.
Legal & General is committed to ensuring that it deals ethically with its suppliers and that these suppliers recognise the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility to us and to them in their operations.
We expect our suppliers to:
- Maintain effective policies and procedures to manage their environmental impact.
- Respect fundamental human rights including worker representation.
- Have a positive impact on the communities in which they operate.
- Maintain and evidence responsible health and safety practices.
- Be committed to a comprehensive policy of equal opportunities in employment.
- Adopt ethical business practices with respect to the business behaviour of individuals and the organisation as a whole.
The following Guidelines reflect in more detail the standards that we expect of our suppliers in key areas of Corporate Social Responsibility, as follows:
- Environmental Management
- Employee Relations
- Community Involvement
- Health and Safety
- Equality and Diversity
- Ethical Behaviour
Legal & General reserves the right to undertake ad hoc audits of our supplier’s files to verify compliance.
These standards are based on our corporate values and beliefs. We require our key suppliers to demonstrate a strategic desire to achieve compliance and provide evidence of ‘best endeavours’ as part of a planned programme of continuous improvement.
Our policy at Legal & General is to obtain overall best value for money from appropriate and professional relationships with third party suppliers of goods and services.We achieve this aim by encouraging competition between suppliers, ensuring that all qualified suppliers have an equal opportunity to secure our business, and by dealing with suppliers in a professional and ethical way.
We are committed to working with our key suppliers to support improvements in their social and ethical practices and have an active programme of engagement of which these Guidelines form an integral part.
